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A Letter from Roy Sebag Founder of BitGold and CEO of GoldMoney Inc.

I want to personally thank you all for the passion and support you have exhibited for BitGold. Ultimately, it is you we have built this for and it is you who make this successful.

2015 was a year when an idea became a business defying logic, conventional wisdom, and the laws of linearity. An idea, hatched by two young entrepreneurs has now evolved into a global platform spanning 600,000 members in nearly 200 countries. An idea that has led to a 50 person team operating a platform that safeguards over $1.5 billion of precious metal assets for over 100,000 members with a positive balance. An idea that has seen some of the world’s greatest investors from George Soros, Albert D. Friedberg, Adam Fleming, Eric Sprott, James Turk and others join with unwavering support and assurances of integrity.

What we have achieved this year is truly historic. In fact, I believe the ramifications will only be truly appreciated several decades from now. We have shown that gold as commodity money has a place within the existing laws and regulations and can be consistent with the ethos of social progress and upward mobility.

We do not need to be fearful or greedy to educate people on the merits of gold. We do not need gold to rise in one specific currency (USD) for hundreds of thousands to derive value and be empowered by our platform. We do not need to be opposed to the beautiful improvements in the quality of life or social cohesion achieved over the last 50 years. Instead, we can show why gold helps solidify the continuation of these trends.

Utilizing commodity money makes sense for responsible citizens seeking to peg their labour, goods, and services to a unit of account that mimics their own personal consumption and savings requirements. Take a look at your own monthly aggregate spending, unless the majority of your income is spent on financial assets, you are likely better off utilizing a commodity money to measure your earnings power and net worth.

Utilizing gold as commodity money makes sense because of universal truths and the laws of physics. Unless you have superhuman powers, you too are bound by the laws of physics and so it makes sense to own the one element of just 92 which is immortal to human entropy and can be bequeathed to your family tree as an heirloom leaving an enduring legacy to posterity.

Utilizing gold as commodity money makes sense because it removes friction costs, settlement times, and foreign exchange from the transfer of value between two parties. Even if you don’t want to own gold at the end of the process, you should be able to see why using gold as a conduit for value transfer is superior to any banking system or method (it’s all in the fees).

There's an upheaval in financial services coming. This upheaval will see long held axioms tested to their core. What is money? Why does it cost money to move money? Why does one nation have stronger money while others have weaker money?

From the ancient Minoan traders in Crete 4,000 years ago to John Law and the Mississippi Bubble just 300 years ago, history is littered with thousands upon thousands of experiments with different types of money. Money that was deposited with banks paying an unfair rate of interest, money that was government backed by a promise, money that favoured the elite, or money that favoured a specific ideology or doctrine over others. These have all been tried and have failed over and over again. Yet no matter how many times these experiments take place, our natural states cause a reversion to the mean with respect to what we regard as money. We seem to always rediscover the value of utilizing gold as a neutral global commodity medium and unit of account. I posit that this is a “science thing” not an “economic thing”.

We are a brilliant species that is enthralled by our planet and universe. We seek to work hard and share our prosperity with our family and neighbours. And we engage in trade as a byproduct of our natural evolutionary productivity. We don’t like to sit around and sloth, we enjoy improving ourselves each and every day. As the scale of time is stretched, our species resorts to our default state of cooperation, empathy, and prosperity.

I believe that BitGold has spawned yet another reversion and that our success coincides with the upheaval we are seeing in digital value transfer (cryptocurrencies) and fintech in general (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Wallet, Square, Stripe, Paypal). Globally, a subliminal “a-ha” feeling is developing with respect to the friction surrounding financial services. That feeling is akin to that of the last riders of horse buggies in Detroit in 1908 as they began to notice the Ford Model T driving down the streets. That we use gold as our only unit of account and store of value means that we are in pole position to create a global unified payments and savings network not restricted by any nations currency or debt system. While it is still early, I am confident that a mere decade from now over half the global population will rely on financial technology companies such as BitGold for their financial services completely supplanting the incumbent’s core businesses lines.

To that end, we are working tirelessly to complete our ecosystem. In 2016 we will be enabling Business Accounts, Invoicing, Checkout Widgets, US Payments, and a Public API. We are also working on several confidential features that will improve the user experience and allow more of you to rely on the platform for your everyday financial services needs. .

We ask you to continue in your efforts to spread the word about BitGold. In 2015 the GoldenHeart program saw enormous success. We made changes to the program that some of you are unhappy with. I have heard these criticisms but respectfully disagree. The GoldenHeart program today is more aligned than ever and those of you that have reached four or five star status can attest to this. There are no more settlement delays and the per user gold bonus for 4 and 5 quality score users is much higher than it ever was. I assure you that if you take the time to refer quality members who will make deposits, use the platform, and provide transparent information about their identity, you too will see your quality score rise and your ability to earn gold through referrals compound. Remember, we are in this for the longterm and expect you to be as well.

Comments

I fully support this platform, and have become an affiliate as well as a customer. I'm getting up to 14,000 views a month and climbing on my website, promoting Bitgold prominently, and helping the company gain more visibility, in addition to earning from my efforts. Thank you Roy and the other founders for this great product, and opportunity!

Thank you Roy for educating me on the meaning of value. Your ability to break-it-down in a way that can be easily understood in laymen's terms is what makes this company so great. All the best in 2016!

Happy New Year......................great concept with unlimited potential.....................still waiting to see a Canadian funded card.

I am one of the 100,000..............having an account and not taking advantage seems, to me, to be a big mistake.

Drop the " Golden heart " plan and reward the users that are the backbone of the company. Having 500 K plus members sitting back and watching, not getting involved and likely just here to keep someone happy, is a waste. Maybe they are waiting for the price of gold to go up so they can purchase less.

Give the " Golden hearters " a period of time to get involved and if they choose to just watch, move them to the sidelines ( account holders with no status and no free gold ) redistribute the grams involved with those that are on side. I'd rather see 100,000 accounts that are all in. Being rewarded for saving gold, what a concept, sounds a bit like the olden days when one got interest.

@oldsock, such a well stated proposal. @Roy Sebag (@Melanie) the information that I have found about the Golden Heart program does not seem to give details about how one can move through the levels and such. The document has a ton of information on how and where to promote, but is general and vague in giving specifics about moving through the levels. What exactly does it take to move from 1 to 5? I went to level 2 today in the program but have no real understanding of what I or my referrals did for that move to happen. Would you or your team explain in more detail for us? Thanks! I love your vision and brilliance. Truly appreciate being involved and am proud to share BitGold with others as the company grows.

I just realized the huge benefits of Bitgold in the late of 2015. I am going to take bold steps in getting more valued referrals this year! Please facilitate the process of bringing the prepaid card to my country,Nigeria. Thanks and God Bless you sir.

Hi @gifted & @JBA_MASTER, A extract from above quotes by Roy Sebag "I assure you that if you take the time to refer quality members who will make deposits, use the platform, and provide transparent information about their identity, you too will see your quality score rise and your ability to earn gold through referrals compound. Remember, we are in this for the longterm and expect you to be as well". Probably the new sponsored members fail make any deposits.

@Roy SebagHow is it a good platform when you take referred bonus gold from members who are active users, spending and investing, just because they refer an individual who do not share the same ideas on investment? I lost 0.25 grams of gold because a friend of mine (a single mother) lost her job just weeks after she first signed up with my referral link. When I asked her to check, she lost her bonus, which makes sense.....she is not an active user. But I am, although not pumping thousands into the platform, I spend what I can afford. AKA INVESTING. Please look into this and for the sake of bitgold, stop robbing your active membership. I am frustrated as all hell.

AND I used to love the online interac. Now, it is gone but debit/visa is an option. So I switched my scotiabank card to a visa debit intentionally just to buy gold from Bitgold. And the outcome? Bitgold will NOT accept my card. So I went to the bank and switched cards, because Bitgold locked my card. And guess what? DENIED. Yep, I have absolutly no means to buy gold and I am not linking my bank account with a company who takes gold whenever they please (Or when the value increases).

A response, and an inquiry would be greatly appreciated. I have (almost) hundreds of dollars in this account and want to buy physical gold. But if you guys keep stealing it, you are just another banking scheme. Fix the situation.

Hi @Jim_Redtail - I have just sent you a message regarding the temporary unavailability of the Interac tool but wanted to respond to your post here as well. As mentioned, this feature will be made available once again and we are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused!

To Roy, Josh and, the BitGold/GoldMoney team I wish them the global growth required to make BitGold the "Gold Standard" for global banking. One key to BitGold's future success lies in the developing world where local currencies have historically been less reliable than the Euro or USD. In this vein I wish @hiddencash a speedy implementation of the prepaid card in Nigeria.

That is not to say that it is only the developing world that benefits. With developed nations printing money as needed, it is only a matter of time until "the bill comes due" and faith in the major global currencies falters. The secure, gold-backed solution that BitGold provides is very appealing. I believe that it truly is the global financial platform for the 21st century.